We Blogged 'em, Now Come See 'em!

For Class Day, Saturday, June 8th, we will have an array of very cool items from Rauner set out for graduating seniors, their families, and members of the Class of 1963. Each of the items have appeared on this blog, so it is a great chance to see some of these materials up close and personally. If you are on campus between 10:00 and 5:00 on Saturday, please drop by and take a look.

We also have a special exhibit for the Class of 1963 that is on display Friday, June 7, from 8:00-4:30; Saturday from 10:00-5:00; Sunday from 12:00-4:00; and Monday, June 9, from 8:00-4:30.

All of the fun is open to the public, so come on in and enjoy the Commencement Weekend festivities.

"Who is the Honorable Robert P. Bass?"

Robert Bass was a young man from a wealthy family who entered politics through his interest in the New Hampshire forest conservation movement. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1905, and in 1909, to the New Hampshire State Senate. During that time he was chairman of the New Hampshire Forestry Commission. According to James Wright, author of The Progressive Yankees, Bass was guided not by "simple political ambition" but rather "by a desire for public service."

Though relatively unknown at first, Bass's involvement with the Committee of Retrenchment and Reform led him to be noticed by the progressive Republicans in the state. These reformers wanted to curtail the influence of lobbyists on state politics, in particular the influence of the Boston and Maine Railroad. They also sought and eventually were able to pass a direct primary law, partial tax reform, and a law requiring lobbyists to register. Bass was the first to benefit from the direct primary law when he ran for governor in 1910 on the progressive platform.

During his campaign, according to Wright, Bass "was a model of superior organization [working] from lists of supporters and potential supporters in each town." An example of this dedication to reach every single voter in the state is this flyer, which was intended for Jewish voters, even though, according to the American Jewish Year Book, New Hampshire's Jewish population was only 1000 in 1907. The flyer is in Yiddish but is written in Hebrew and is "A Call to All Jews in New Hampshire." In it Bass introduces himself and his political positions. He states that he is 38 years old and a Harvard graduate from 1896. He then proclaims that he is a "friend to all people, rich or poor," and "does not play the political game." He is also proud of being "endorsed by Dartmouth president Tucker and  Winston Churchill [the writer]" He promises that if Jewish people vote for him, "the railroad will be cheaper," but if they do not vote for him "everything will get more expensive." Bass won the election and was governor from 1911-1913.

To learn more about Robert P. Bass and his politics take a look at his papers for which an electronic finding aid is now available. The campaign flyer can be found in ML-31, box 63, folder 19.

James Wright's book The Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire, 1906-1916 can be found at Rauner D.C History F39. W75 1987 c.2

For Men Lonely

For Men Lonely is a guide to twelve women's colleges on the East Coast that was written by three Dartmouth students in 1947 before the college went co-ed. The book was inspired by one too many uncomfortable nights in the Northampton jail (for lack of better lodging). It is filled with useful information for sketchy college men seeking college women, specifically: maps of campus; the locations and contact information for local florists, liquor stores, and nightspots; and a listing of the annual social event dates and curfew times for each college.

Some of the general descriptions contain moments of wry humor, such as this guide to the area near Bryn Mawr: "Most of the college crowd leaves Philly to the Quakers… and sticks pretty much to the suburban spots. If you know Philadelphia, you will too." Other entries are less endearing, such as a hopelessly misguided attempt to compliment Skidmore women by comparing them to racehorses at the local track.

One can only imagine the desperation that would drive a young man to walk up to the bookstore counter with For Men Lonely in one hand and money in the other. Thankfully, having a look at the book nowadays doesn't require you to navigate any morally questionable landscape. Instead, guide yourself to Rauner and ask for Alumni J7278f, complete with the authors' autographs on the flyleaf.

Hanover's Favorite Recipes

Dartmouth has long been a respected academic institution, rewarding its students with knowledge, new experiences and even some enjoyable social events. However, food may be the unsung hero of the Dartmouth experience. Hanover has created dozens of cookbooks over the last century, providing crucial instructions on how to feed the ever-hungry college student or Dartmouth-graduate.

The White Church Women's Association in Hanover published the first Hanover cookbook, Recipes, in Rauner's collection in 1928. The 1920's woman was more resourceful than the twenty-first century cook, with an entire section dedicated to the uses for sour milk. Still, quality and ingenuity can go hand in hand. I would personally advocate for the increased twenty-first century consumption of "Rinktum Tiddy" and a dessert called "Hermits," based on their names alone.

By the 1950s, Hanover had apparently taken a turn for the health conscious. The 1950 cookbook of Hanover’s Favorite Recipes, compiled by the Grafton Star Grange, dedicates a large section to weight control. While the "Eighteen Day Reducing Diet" and the "Body Building and Weight Gaining Diet" don’t exactly fit modern day nutritional guidelines, they show a college town increasingly concerned with their waistlines. The cookbook even contains a weight chart, showing the correct correlation between "Weight in Pounds (With Regular Clothes)" and "Height (with shoes on)."

In the 1960s, Dartmouth began to celebrate its perceived culinary expertise. The Dartmouth Women's Club wrote in the introduction of Favorite Dartmouth Recipes that, "much of the excellence that is Dartmouth is largely due to the fact that the wives and mothers of Dartmouth men are superb cooks." Viewing the recipes from the 1960s, a modern reader may question this claim. While many of the food creations in the 1961 College Town Cook Book and 1967 Tuck-Thayer Wives Club are likely delicious, a distinct handful would likely not agree with the stomachs of Dartmouth students in 2013. One major objection: the incredibly common use of Jell-O in any dish. From salads to meal loafs, gelatin seems to have been the go-to ingredient in Hanover and Dartmouth kitchens in the 1960s.

Cookbook creation has lagged in recent years. With coeducation, the College began to emphasize women's roles outside of wives, mothers and chefs. Nonetheless, there continue to be notable contributions to Dartmouth's cookbook collection. One such example is the Handel Society’s Culinary Notes, published in 1987. Each recipe in the book, published to support the musical ensemble founded in 1807, specifies not only the hometown of each recipe's author, but also his or her vocal part.

Posted for Kate Taylor '13
   

Introducing Edna St. Vincent Millay

Introducing a speaker is always tricky. You want to be witty and urbane, but at the same time honor the seriousness of the moment. All of the attention must be deflected to the honored guest, but if you give a bad introduction, everyone will remember. It is trickier still if you are introducing a great poet known for her attentive use of language while you yourself are famous for your way with words.

Among our small collection of the Papers of Aldous Huxley, is a heavily annotated, undated, draft of an introduction that Huxley once gave for Edna St. Vincent Millay. The draft shows Huxley's struggles to get the tone just right--making small changes like substituting "impetuous current" for "onrush" and revamping entire sentences then rejecting them altogether. His final version captures the force of Milley's poetry and then summons her to the stage:

Like the Elizabethans, she seems constantly on the verge of being swept off her feet by the impetuous current of her own eloquence; but just as it seems inevitable that she should fall, the headlong movement is miraculously transformed before your eyes into a figure of the Dance, into some beautiful gesture, entirely unexpected and novel, and entirely satisfying.

The same could be said for Huxley's introduction--a beautiful work in itself.  Come read it and see all of his changes by asking for MS 286, Box 1.

Erasable Pages

What's with the stained blank page? If you could feel it, you would also ask why it feels so odd.  It has a kind of waxy coating, feels a little like vellum, but not as supple, and it has streaks of old ink set into its scratched surface.

We often value our old books for the extensive marginalia left behind by generations of readers. The comments give us insights into how the text was received in other times and places. But not all readers wanted to fill their books with notations.

This copy of the Elsevier 1665 edition of Boccaccio's Decameron was highly portable, but the compact size left little room in the margins for notes. The solution was ingenious. At the front and back are two leaves very different from the rest of the paper in the book. These are erasable surfaces, where a reader could jot down notes as he or she read. The reader could then transcribe the notes into a commonplace book and, with a damp rag, rub away the comments. The book stays clean, the notes are captured, and there is space for further musings.

The staining shows at least one reader was actively using the erasable pages to record thoughts, what they were, we will never know.

Ask for Presses E52bo.

Postcards from the Green

The first postcard ever sent was in Austria in 1869, but it took a few years for the trend to catch on in the United States. The U.S. Post Office issued its first postcard in 1873. However, it was not until 1907, when postcards were allowed the divided back for a message and the address on one side and a full picture on the other, that postcards hit their "Golden Age." As photographic technology improved, postcards gained the ability to showcase the daily lives of the senders. At Dartmouth, postcards have been used throughout the years to promote the college, give family back home and idea of what is happening, or simply to let someone know they are missed. Looking at Dartmouth postcards over time shows how much has changed in Hanover in the last century - and what has stayed the same.

Viewing old postcards, it is easier to spot changes at Dartmouth than what has stayed the same. The first Ledyard Bridge, for example, was built in 1859 and bears little resemblance to the current uncovered bridge. The view of campus was very different, with more tress and lacking a number of notable buildings. However, some landmarks, such as Webster Hall (which now houses Rauner Library) and Baker Library, built in 1928, remain the same. A 1932 postcard of the Tower Room bears a photo that looks like it could have been taken in 2013. Often, the biggest changes in iconic areas such as the Green are the people. In some postcards, the changes are minute, such as different clothing styles or cars. The most starkly divergent postcard in Dartmouth's collection is from World War II, bearing a photo of military men in uniform arrayed in formation on the Green in uniform, with Baker Library and Webster Hall in the background.

Perhaps the most revealing postcard in terms of changes at Dartmouth is not a photograph, but instead a miniature poster from 1916. Nate, the author and a member of the class of 1920, wrote his father "This is a miniature of the poster that all Freshmen must buy." The poster addresses, "Ye Puny Prodigals of Prep-school, Ye Pups of Ignorance, Ye Illiterate Imbeciles:" in other words, the freshman class. The class of 1919 lays forth twelve rules for the class of 1920 to follow, including the need to wear a "cute green cap with a monstrous white button" and to "never short-cut across the grass." While the college no longer allows such hazing of freshmen, Nate's writing on the postcard is similar to that of a quick e-mail home. He requests curtains for his dorm room windows, asks how everything is at home and of course tells his father of all the work he has to get done before his vacation Friday. Check out Dartmouth's postcard collection to see the evolution of other aspects of Dartmouth, from fraternity houses to Winter Carnival, in 3 1/2 by 5-inch tidbits.

Ask for Rauner Iconography 1523 to see all 1400 plus postcards.

Posted for Kate Taylor '13